Sustainable Landscaping

We consider landscapes that utilize native plant species in high visibility areas to be sustainable landscaping. This may include landscapes where native plants are used in a formalized design, such as in commercial development, corporate campuses, or in home landscapes. We consider most green infrastructure projects to be sustainable landscapes, such as bioswales, rain gardens, or constructed ponds and wetlands.

Inexperienced contractors often ignore the site soils before seeding, use the cheapest seed they can buy, or even use “wildflower” mixes that contain short-lived non-native species.

Where others have failed, we succeed. Since our founding our work has almost exclusively involved sustainable landscapes and ecological restoration. Because of our success, we’ve been entrusted with the sustainable landscapes of prominent regional institutions, such as The Adler Planetarium, Maggie Daley Park and the Field Museum along Chicago’s lake shore.

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Featured Case Study:

Chicago Botanic Garden

Ecosystem Restoration

With less than 0.1% of our original Illinois ecosystems remaining intact from before European settlement, remnant ecosystems are rare. The restoration or recovery of remnant plant communities must entail careful, thoughtful, and scientifically based planning, implementation, and oversight. 

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When the goal is to construct a natural area on highly disturbed sites, a more heavy handed science-based approach may be necessary. These projects might go so far as to remove agricultural drain tiles to restore historic site hydrology or involve complete remediation of site soils. The main concern with these projects is controlling weed content prior to the re-introduction of native species through seeding or planting.

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Our managers and field crew have successfully worked on some of the region’s most sensitive remnant ecological sites and we’ve recently completed one of the region’s largest wetland reconstruction projects at Pine Dunes Forest Preserve.
 

Featured Case Study:

Pine Dunes

Maintenance

You’ve invested considerably in plants, seed, mulch and labor to install your native planting…now what? Success in sustainable landscaping and ecosystem restoration projects depend equally on the maintenance they receive post installation.

Maintenance should begin immediately after planting and will be most intensive through the establishment period, which could be 1 to 5 years depending upon the type of project it is. Establishment maintenance may include temporary irrigation or hand watering of installed trees, shrubs, and plugs; mowing of seeded areas by tractor or by hand; spot herbicide applications to control perennial weeds; hand pulling when mowing isn’t possible or appropriate; re-planting seed or plants in underperforming areas; and may include the re-application of mulch when needed.

Long-term maintenance will typically be less intensive and includes occasional spot herbicide treatments and prescribed fire.

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Featured Case Study:

Radio Flyer